January 11, 2014
Eric,
Per our conversation this past Thursday, I wanted to follow up on my email response to your announcement to the Presidents coming out of the ASEA October meeting in Copper Mt. As I mentioned in that email (copied below), “My hope is for RM to parallel those (ASEA’s governance) efforts with a process to draft an agreement of affiliation between RM and the ASEA as business entities…” The RM Board brought that process to a completion at our recent winter meeting.
Speaking for the RM Board, I want to assure you and your Board, as well as the entire membership of the ASEA, that PSIA-RM is completely committed to continuing our alliance with the ASEA and the national brand which we have helped create. Our intention is not to simply participate; we have a continuing, and even stronger commitment to contribute as much as possible to ASEA’s effort to serve their members across the country. As your present ASEA Board moves toward more direct representation within its Board we welcome the opportunity to have a voice in ASEA’s continuing development. We look forward to being involved with decisions the ASEA Board will be making which affect the collective entities.
With that said, we all know this is an alliance of individual groups and not a partnership per se. We at RM realize that to contribute, and certainly to the significant extent we feel is our responsibility, it is imperative we have an agreement of understanding; one which clearly defines our relationship and affiliation with the ASEA. We have looked at our historical relationship, our present business model, and possible changes to that model as we continue to move forward. As a result we have arrived at a Memorandum of Understanding (attached). We feel this agreement will allow us to be a positive contributor to the ASEA’s efforts. At the same time it assures our independence as a business entity and our ability to maintain and develop our assets. It is these assets which allow us to serve our individual membership and contribute to a unified effort to serve professionals, the public, and the industry.
This Memorandum of Understanding is an agreement we are prepared to sign, and for the most part, will remain the agreement we would sign going forward should the process continue at the pace it has the past few years.
Speaking for the RM Board, I request the ASEA Executive Committee, and subsequently the ASEA Board; give this Memorandum of Understanding careful consideration as soon as possible. Our intention is to mutually sign it and move forward, collectively and individually, on our mission of helping our professionals serve the snow sports public to the best of their ability, promote our sport for the public welfare, and support the industry to which we are all committed.
Sincerely,
Joel Munn-President PSIA-RM-AASI
February 12, 2014
Joel,
Thank you for forwarding the RM Memorandum of Understanding. It was passed on to the PSIA-AASI Board of Directors prior to our meeting on February 2, 2014.
During that meeting, Peter Donahue made a motion to adopt the RM Memorandum of Understanding. The motion failed for lack of a second. The board went on to discuss ways we might move forward with RM. This led to support for a small group to develop specific responses to items in the Memorandum that require further discussion with RM, in order to reach mutually acceptable language that is in the best interests of the membership.
We are optimistic that this is a step towards clarifying our relationship, and that we can reach common ground on the points in the document that are not already mutually acceptable.
I appreciate the opportunity for further discussion and will be in contact as soon as we are prepared to discuss specific issues in a productive way.
Sincerely,
Eric Sheckleton
Chairman of the Board
PSIA-AASI
Eric Sheckleton
Chairman of the Board
PSIA-AASI